Anatomy Staff don't just do science, they love science. This shows in the number of awards they get for both their teaching and their research, and the prestigious grants the Department earns. Below are a few of our most recent awards and grants.
Recent awards
Highest Honour...
Anatomy Professor, Lisa Matisoo-Smith, is the latest recipient of the Distinguished Research Medal, the University of Otago's highest distinction. Announcing the honour, Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne said that Professor Matisoo-Smith is a richly deserving recipient of the medal. “Lisa Matisoo-Smith is a greatly respected international scholar who has reshaped our understanding of the last great human migration into the Pacific. She is also a great communicator who has engaged and motivated the public about her science in a way few others working in New Zealand have achieved.”
For more about this award
OSMS Oscars...
The Otago School of Medical Sciences (OSMS) held their prestigious awards ceremony in December 2015 and Anatomy staff took out 7 of the 12 awards on offer!!!
Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith took out the award for Distinguished Researcher of the Year; Dr Louise Parr-Brownlie won the Kaupapa Māori Research Award; Dr Jo-Ann Stanton won the Commercial Research Award; Associate Professor Hallie Buckley won the Pasifika Research Award; Dr Brad Hurren won Distinguished Teaching Fellow/PPF Science (his second teaching award this year); Dr Latika Samalia won Distinguished TF/Professional Practice Fellow Professional Programme and Mr Robbie McPhee won the Sustained Research Support Staff Award.
For more about the individual awards read the full story
Photo: (L to R) Dr Brad Hurren, Dr Latika Samalia, Mr Robbie McPhee, Dr Louise Parr-Brownlie, Dr Jo-Ann Stanton, Associate Professor Hallie Buckley.
(Absent - Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith who was working overseas)
Recent grants
New grant reinforces our reputation as the home of Conservation Genomics...
Department of Anatomy researchers Dr Michael Knapp and Professor Neil Gemmell have won one of only eight Sustainable Seas National Science grants worth $300,000.
Their project aims to establish and test an innovative, high-throughput and cost efficient strategy for quantifying marine biodiversity using environmental DNA (eDNA).
'The combination of genomics expertise and infrastructure, expertise in marine ecology and the proximity to varied marine ecosystems, makes Otago an ideal setting for the success of our project,' says Dr Knapp.
For more about this story
Health Research Council funding success...
Four researchers from the Department of Anatomy have been successful in securing funding worth around $7.3M from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. The projects being funded relate to major health issues affecting many New Zealanders – stress and anxiety, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease.
Associate Professor Greg Anderson and Professor Dave Grattan have secured funding as principle investigators on research projects, while Associate Professor Ping Liu and Dr Joanna Williams are named as co-principle investigators on a research programme directed by Professor Cliff Abraham, from the Department of Psychology.
Head of Department Professor Neil Gemmell said he was delighted to hear of the funding success, and the recognition and support of the top quality research being undertaken in the Department.
For more about this story
Three research projects bring in over $2.2 million...
Congratulations to Associate Professor Hallie Buckley, Associate Professor Christine Jasoni and Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith who have been successful in receiving funding from the prestigious Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund. Their projects explore the emergence of social inequality in a late Iron Age community in Southeast Asia, the risk of obesity in children whose mothers were obese during pregnancy, and the genomic profile of the first New Zealanders.
The origins of social inequality in Southeast Asia: an exploration of health and wealth disparity at the emergence of state level society.
Associate Professor Hallie Buckley - $767,000
Co-Principal Investigator: Professor Charles Higham (Anthropology & Archaeology)
Exposed: does a leaky blood-brain barrier elevate the risk for obesity in the offspring of obese mothers?
Associate Professor Christine Jasoni - $740,000
A genomic study of the people of Wairau Bar: health, history and origins of the first New Zealanders.
Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith - $767,000
These projects highlight the incredible calibre and diversity of research being done in the Anatomy Department.